Where passion meets purpose: How Matt Watts rediscovered his love for livestock
Now Nutrien Ag Solutions’ Western Australia Livestock Lead, Matt’s dedicated to showing the next generation that you don’t need a book to take over, if there’s a passion there’s a pathway to a career in livestock.
“After finishing Ag College, I commenced a traineeship in 2006 with Landmark, however two years later I was lured to the mines up north and started an electrical apprenticeship in 2008.
“Even though I had finished my trade and had plenty of job opportunities as an electrician, I couldn’t let go of my passion for agriculture and I didn't get the same fulfillment that I could see agents had in the livestock industry.
“So I put down the tools and was lucky to be welcomed back into the green team in 2014 to continue my dream of making a career as a livestock agent.”
With applications currently open for our Career Development Program, Matt firmly believes Nutrien is ahead of the game when it comes to the knowledge and experience within the Western Australia team.
“This program, first and foremost offers opportunities for you to make connections which is vital early in your career. We’re the largest livestock agency in WA with 75 livestock agents across every corner of the state,” he said.
“The mentors I had back when I started, I still lean on them for guidance today. It just shows you the importance of connections and for such a large business, the culture of care really is there and the company wants to see you succeed.
“It's a job where you're going somewhere different every day, meeting different people every day and it’s hard to find any other job that gives you those experiences and opportunities."
Matt also believes Nutrien Ag Solutions is a leader in the industry when it comes to the new technologies being offered to livestock agents and their customers.
Matt said the ability to adopt and utilise data and insights while still being authentic to the old school practices of being an agent is vital for the next generation.
“Technology is certainly playing a huge role in our industry. What I can see that's really beneficial and what we have at our fingertips is factual market intelligence,” he said.
“That might not just be related to the markets that they're currently selling in, but more broadly in WA, Australia and internationally. As a company, we capture all that data, measure it and quantify it.
“I think it's really beneficial what we have available, whether that's through our Mercado analysis or our NSight platform, it's market leading and we're ahead of the game in that space I strongly believe.
"I think having those informed conversations then gives you the ability to be more valuable to the producer because you can bring a lot more to the table.
“The next generation coming through excite me because when you see their level of engagement and that they want to absorb as much as they can, I can see that they're going to succeed.”
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